Observe user's capabilities

Article
05/23/2024

Do I have permission to turn on video, do I have permission to turn on mic, do I have permission to share screen? Those are some examples of participant capabilities that you can learn from the capabilities API. Learning the capabilities can help build a user interface that only shows the buttons related to the actions the local user has permissions to.

Prerequisites

An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free.
A deployed Communication Services resource. Create a Communication Services resource.
A user access token to enable the calling client. For more information, see Create and manage access tokens.
Optional: Complete the quick start to add voice calling to your application

Supported Platform - Web

Install the SDK

Use the npm install command to install the Azure Communication Services Common and Calling SDK for JavaScript:

npm install @azure/communication-common --save
npm install @azure/communication-calling --save

Initialize required objects

A CallClient instance is required for most call operations. When you create a new CallClient instance, you can configure it with custom options like a Logger instance.

With the CallClient instance, you can create a CallAgent instance by calling the createCallAgent. This method asynchronously returns a CallAgent instance object.

The createCallAgent method uses CommunicationTokenCredential as an argument. It accepts a user access token.

You can use the getDeviceManager method on the CallClient instance to access deviceManager.

const { CallClient } = require('@azure/communication-calling');
const { AzureCommunicationTokenCredential} = require('@azure/communication-common');
const { AzureLogger, setLogLevel } = require("@azure/logger");

// Set the logger's log level
setLogLevel('verbose');

// Redirect log output to console, file, buffer, REST API, or whatever location you want
AzureLogger.log = (...args) => {
    console.log(...args); // Redirect log output to console
};

const userToken = '<USER_TOKEN>';
callClient = new CallClient(options);
const tokenCredential = new AzureCommunicationTokenCredential(userToken);
const callAgent = await callClient.createCallAgent(tokenCredential, {displayName: 'optional Azure Communication Services user name'});
const deviceManager = await callClient.getDeviceManager()

How to best manage SDK connectivity to Microsoft infrastructure

The Call Agent instance helps you manage calls (to join or start calls). In order to work your calling SDK needs to connect to Microsoft infrastructure to get notifications of incoming calls and coordinate other call details. Your Call Agent has two possible states:

Connected - A Call Agent connectionStatue value of Connected means the client SDK is connected and capable of receiving notifications from Microsoft infrastructure.

Disconnected - A Call Agent connectionStatue value of Disconnected states there's an issue that is preventing the SDK it from properly connecting. Call Agent should be re-created.

invalidToken: If a token is expired or is invalid Call Agent instance disconnects with this error.
connectionIssue: If there's an issue with the client connecting to Microsoft infrascture, after many retries Call Agent exposes the connectionIssue error.

You can check if your local Call Agent is connected to Microsoft infrastructure by inspecting the current value of connectionState property. During an active call you can listen to the connectionStateChanged event to determine if Call Agent changes from Connected to Disconnected state.

const connectionState = callAgentInstance.connectionState;
console.log(connectionState); // it may return either of 'Connected' | 'Disconnected'

const connectionStateCallback = (args) => {
    console.log(args); // it will return an object with oldState and newState, each of having a value of either of 'Connected' | 'Disconnected'
    // it will also return reason, either of 'invalidToken' | 'connectionIssue'
}
callAgentInstance.on('connectionStateChanged', connectionStateCallback);

Capabilities feature is an extended feature of the core Call API and allows you to obtain the capabilities of the local participant in the current call.

The feature allows you to register for an event listener, to listen to capability changes.

Register to capabilities feature:

const capabilitiesFeature = this.call.feature(Features.Capabilities);

Get the capabilities of the local participant: Capabilities object has the capabilities of the local participants and is of type ParticipantCapabilities. Properties of Capabilities include:

isPresent indicates if a capability is present.
reason indicates capability resolution reason.

const capabilities =  capabilitiesFeature.capabilities;

Subscribe to capabilitiesChanged event:

capabilitiesFeature.on('capabilitiesChanged', (capabilitiesChangeInfo) => {
    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(capabilitiesChangeInfo.newValue)) {
        if(key === 'turnVideoOn' && value.reason != 'FeatureNotSupported') {
             (value.isPresent) ? this.setState({ canOnVideo: true }) : this.setState({ canOnVideo: false });
             continue;
        }
        if(key === 'unmuteMic' && value.reason != 'FeatureNotSupported') {
            (value.isPresent) ? this.setState({ canUnMuteMic: true }) : this.setState({ canUnMuteMic: false });
            continue;
        }
        if(key === 'shareScreen' && value.reason != 'FeatureNotSupported') {
            (value.isPresent) ? this.setState({ canShareScreen: true }) : this.setState({ canShareScreen: false });
            continue;
        }
        if(key === 'spotlightParticipant' && value.reason != 'FeatureNotSupported') {
            (value.isPresent) ? this.setState({ canSpotlight: true }) : this.setState({ canSpotlight: false });
            continue;
        }
        if(key === 'raiseHand' && value.reason != 'FeatureNotSupported') {
            (value.isPresent) ? this.setState({ canRaiseHands: true }) : this.setState({ canRaiseHands: false });
            continue;
        }
        if(key === 'reaction' && value.reason != 'FeatureNotSupported') {
            (value.isPresent) ? this.setState({ canReact: true }) : this.setState({ canReact: false });
            continue;
        }
    }
});

Capabilities Exposed

turnVideoOn: Ability to turn video on
unmuteMic: Ability to turn mic on
shareScreen: Ability to share screen
removeParticipant: Ability to remove a participant
hangUpForEveryOne: Ability to hang up for everyone
addCommunicationUser: Ability to add a communication user
addTeamsUser: Ability to add Teams User
addPhoneNumber: Ability to add phone number
manageLobby: Ability to manage lobby (beta only)
spotlightParticipant: Ability to spotlight Participant (beta only)
removeParticipantsSpotlight: Ability to remove Participant spotlight (beta only)
startLiveCaptions: Ability to start live captions (beta only)
stopLiveCaptions: Ability to stop live captions (beta only)
raiseHand: Ability to raise hand (beta only)
reaction: Ability to react in the meeting (beta only)
viewAttendeeNames: Ability to view attendee names in the meeting

Install the SDK

Locate your project-level build.gradle file and add mavenCentral() to the list of repositories under buildscript and allprojects:

buildscript {
    repositories {
    ...
        mavenCentral()
    ...
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
    ...
        mavenCentral()
    ...
    }
}

Then, in your module-level build.gradle file, add the following lines to the dependencies section:

dependencies {
    ...
    implementation 'com.azure.android:azure-communication-calling:1.0.0'
    ...
}

Initialize the required objects

To create a CallAgent instance, you have to call the createCallAgent method on a CallClient instance. This call asynchronously returns a CallAgent instance object.

The createCallAgent method takes CommunicationUserCredential as an argument, which encapsulates an access token.

To access DeviceManager, you must create a callAgent instance first. Then you can use the CallClient.getDeviceManager method to get DeviceManager.

String userToken = '<user token>';
CallClient callClient = new CallClient();
CommunicationTokenCredential tokenCredential = new CommunicationTokenCredential(userToken);
android.content.Context appContext = this.getApplicationContext(); // From within an activity, for instance
CallAgent callAgent = callClient.createCallAgent(appContext, tokenCredential).get();
DeviceManager deviceManager = callClient.getDeviceManager(appContext).get();

To set a display name for the caller, use this alternative method:

String userToken = '<user token>';
CallClient callClient = new CallClient();
CommunicationTokenCredential tokenCredential = new CommunicationTokenCredential(userToken);
android.content.Context appContext = this.getApplicationContext(); // From within an activity, for instance
CallAgentOptions callAgentOptions = new CallAgentOptions();
callAgentOptions.setDisplayName("Alice Bob");
DeviceManager deviceManager = callClient.getDeviceManager(appContext).get();
CallAgent callAgent = callClient.createCallAgent(appContext, tokenCredential, callAgentOptions).get();

Important

Functionality described in this article is currently in public preview. This preview version is provided without a service-level agreement, and we don't recommend it for production workloads. Certain features might not be supported or might have constrained capabilities. For more information, see Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews.

Capabilities feature is an extended feature of the core Call API and allows you to obtain the capabilities of the local participant in the current call.

The feature allows you to register for an event listener, to listen to capability changes.

In order to use the Capabilities call feature for Windows, the first step is to obtain the Capabilities feature API object:

Obtaining capabilities feature

private CapabilitiesCallFeature capabilitiesCallFeature;
capabilitiesCallFeature = call.feature(Features.CAPABILITIES);

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Capabilities object has the capabilities of the local participants and is of type ParticipantCapability. Properties of Capabilities include:

isAllowed indicates if a capability can be used.
reason indicates capability resolution reason.

List<ParticipantCapability> capabilities = capabilitiesCallFeature.getCapabilities();

Subscribe to `capabilitiesChanged` event


capabilitiesCallFeature.addOnCapabilitiesChangedListener(this::OnCapabilitiesChanged);

private void OnCapabilitiesChanged(CapabilitiesChangedEvent args)
{
    String event = String.format("Capabilities Event: %s", args.getReason().toString());
    Log.i("CapabilitiesInfo", event);
    for (ParticipantCapability capability : args.getChangedCapabilities())
    {
        Log.i("CapabilitiesInfo", capability.getType().toString() + " is " capability.getReason().toString());
    }
}

Capabilities Exposed

TurnVideoOn: Ability to turn video on
UnmuteMicrophone: Ability to unmute microphone
ShareScreen: Ability to share screen
RemoveParticipant: Ability to remove a participant
HangUpForEveryone: Ability to hang up for everyone
AddCommunicationUser: Ability to add a communication user
AddTeamsUser: Ability to add Teams User
AddPhoneNumber: Ability to add phone number
ManageLobby: Ability to manage lobby
SpotlightParticipant: Ability to spotlight Participant
RemoveParticipantSpotlight: Ability to remove Participant spotlight
BlurBackground: Ability to blur background
CustomBackground: Ability to apply a custom background
StartLiveCaptions: Ability to start live captions
RaiseHand: Ability to raise hand

Set up your system

Create the Visual Studio project

For a UWP app, in Visual Studio 2022, create a new Blank App (Universal Windows) project. After you enter the project name, feel free to choose any Windows SDK later than 10.0.17763.0.

For a WinUI 3 app, create a new project with the Blank App, Packaged (WinUI 3 in Desktop) template to set up a single-page WinUI 3 app. Windows App SDK version 1.3 or later is required.

Install the package and dependencies by using NuGet Package Manager

The Calling SDK APIs and libraries are publicly available via a NuGet package.

The following steps exemplify how to find, download, and install the Calling SDK NuGet package:

Open NuGet Package Manager by selecting Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution.
Select Browse, and then enter Azure.Communication.Calling.WindowsClient in the search box.
Make sure that the Include prerelease check box is selected.
Select the Azure.Communication.Calling.WindowsClient package, and then select Azure.Communication.Calling.WindowsClient 1.4.0-beta.1 or a newer version.
Select the checkbox that corresponds to the Communication Services project on the right-side tab.
Select the Install button.

Important

Capabilities feature is an extended feature of the core Call API and allows you to obtain the capabilities of the local participant in the current call.

The feature allows you to register for an event listener, to listen to capability changes.

In order to use the Capabilities call feature for Windows, the first step is to obtain the Capabilities feature API object:

Obtaining capabilities feature

private CapabilitiesCallFeature capabilitiesCallFeature;
capabilitiesCallFeature = call.Features.Capabilities;

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Capabilities object has the capabilities of the local participants and is of type ParticipantCapability. Properties of Capabilities include:

isAllowed indicates if a capability can be used.
reason indicates capability resolution reason.

var capabilities = capabilitiesCallFeature.Capabilities;

Subscribe to `capabilitiesChanged` event

capabilitiesCallFeature.CapabilitiesChanged += Call__OnCapabilitiesChangedAsync;

private async void Call__OnCapabilitiesChangedAsync(object sender, CapabilitiesChangedEventArgs args)
{
    Trace.WriteLine(args.Reason.ToString());
    foreach (var capability in args.ChangedCapabilities)
    {
        //Prints out capability kind and resolution reason in console
        Trace.WriteLine(capability.Kind.ToString() + " is " + capability.Reason.ToString());
    }
}

Capabilities Exposed

TurnVideoOn: Ability to turn video on
UnmuteMicrophone: Ability to unmute microphone
ShareScreen: Ability to share screen
RemoveParticipant: Ability to remove a participant
HangUpForEveryone: Ability to hang up for everyone
AddCommunicationUser: Ability to add a communication user
AddTeamsUser: Ability to add Teams User
AddPhoneNumber: Ability to add phone number
ManageLobby: Ability to manage lobby
SpotlightParticipant: Ability to spotlight Participant
RemoveParticipantSpotlight: Ability to remove Participant spotlight
BlurBackground: Ability to blur background
CustomBackground: Ability to apply a custom background
StartLiveCaptions: Ability to start live captions
RaiseHand: Ability to raise hand

Set up your system

Create the Xcode project

In Xcode, create a new iOS project and select the Single View App template. This quickstart uses the SwiftUI framework, so you should set Language to Swift and set Interface to SwiftUI.

You're not going to create tests during this quickstart. Feel free to clear the Include Tests checkbox.

Screenshot that shows the window for creating a project within Xcode.

Install the package and dependencies by using CocoaPods

Create a Podfile for your application, like this example:

platform :ios, '13.0'
use_frameworks!
target 'AzureCommunicationCallingSample' do
    pod 'AzureCommunicationCalling', '~> 1.0.0'
end

Run pod install.
Open .xcworkspace by using Xcode.

Request access to the microphone

To access the device's microphone, you need to update your app's information property list by using NSMicrophoneUsageDescription. You set the associated value to a string that will be included in the dialog that the system uses to request access from the user.

Right-click the Info.plist entry of the project tree, and then select Open As > Source Code. Add the following lines in the top-level <dict> section, and then save the file.

<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>Need microphone access for VOIP calling.</string>

Set up the app framework

Open your project's ContentView.swift file. Add an import declaration to the top of the file to import the AzureCommunicationCalling library. In addition, import AVFoundation. You'll need it for audio permission requests in the code.

import AzureCommunicationCalling
import AVFoundation

Initialize CallAgent

To create a CallAgent instance from CallClient, you have to use a callClient.createCallAgent method that asynchronously returns a CallAgent object after it's initialized.

To create a call client, pass a CommunicationTokenCredential object:

import AzureCommunication

let tokenString = "token_string"
var userCredential: CommunicationTokenCredential?
do {
    let options = CommunicationTokenRefreshOptions(initialToken: token, refreshProactively: true, tokenRefresher: self.fetchTokenSync)
    userCredential = try CommunicationTokenCredential(withOptions: options)
} catch {
    updates("Couldn't created Credential object", false)
    initializationDispatchGroup!.leave()
    return
}

// tokenProvider needs to be implemented by Contoso, which fetches a new token
public func fetchTokenSync(then onCompletion: TokenRefreshOnCompletion) {
    let newToken = self.tokenProvider!.fetchNewToken()
    onCompletion(newToken, nil)
}

Pass the CommunicationTokenCredential object that you created to CallClient, and set the display name:

self.callClient = CallClient()
let callAgentOptions = CallAgentOptions()
options.displayName = " iOS Azure Communication Services User"

self.callClient!.createCallAgent(userCredential: userCredential!,
    options: callAgentOptions) { (callAgent, error) in
        if error == nil {
            print("Create agent succeeded")
            self.callAgent = callAgent
        } else {
            print("Create agent failed")
        }
})

Important

Capabilities feature is an extended feature of the core Call API and allows you to obtain the capabilities of the local participant in the current call.

The feature allows you to register for an event listener, to listen to capability changes.

In order to use the Capabilities call feature for Windows, the first step is to obtain the Capabilities feature API object:

Obtaining capabilities feature

let capabilitiesCallFeature =call.feature(Features.capabilities)

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Capabilities object has the capabilities of the local participants and is of type ParticipantCapability. Properties of Capabilities include:

isAllowed indicates if a capability can be used.
reason indicates capability resolution reason.

var capabilities = capabilitiesCallFeature.capabilities

Subscribe to `capabilitiesChanged` event


capabilitiesCallFeature.delegate = CapabilitiesCallDelegate()

public class CapabilitiesCallDelegate : CapabilitiesCallFeatureDelegate
{
    public func capabilitiesCallFeature(_ capabilitiesCallFeature: CapabilitiesCallFeature, didChangeCapabilities args: CapabilitiesChangedEventArgs) {
        let changedReason = args.reason
        let changedCapabilities = args.changedCapabilities
    }
}

Capabilities Exposed

TurnVideoOn: Ability to turn video on
UnmuteMicrophone: Ability to unmute microphone
ShareScreen: Ability to share screen
RemoveParticipant: Ability to remove a participant
HangUpForEveryone: Ability to hang up for everyone
AddCommunicationUser: Ability to add a communication user
AddTeamsUser: Ability to add Teams User
AddPhoneNumber: Ability to add phone number
ManageLobby: Ability to manage lobby
SpotlightParticipant: Ability to spotlight Participant
RemoveParticipantSpotlight: Ability to remove Participant spotlight
BlurBackground: Ability to blur background
CustomBackground: Ability to apply a custom background
StartLiveCaptions: Ability to start live captions
RaiseHand: Ability to raise hand

Supported Calltype

The feature is currently supported only for Azure Communication Services Rooms call type and teams meeting call type

Share via

Observe user's capabilities

Prerequisites

Supported Platform - Web

Install the SDK

Initialize required objects

How to best manage SDK connectivity to Microsoft infrastructure

Install the SDK

Initialize the required objects

Obtaining capabilities feature

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Capabilities Exposed

Set up your system

Create the Visual Studio project

Install the package and dependencies by using NuGet Package Manager

Obtaining capabilities feature

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Capabilities Exposed

Set up your system

Create the Xcode project

Install the package and dependencies by using CocoaPods

Request access to the microphone

Set up the app framework

Initialize CallAgent

Obtaining capabilities feature

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Capabilities Exposed

Supported Calltype

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources

Share via

Observe user's capabilities

Prerequisites

Supported Platform - Web

Install the SDK

Initialize required objects

How to best manage SDK connectivity to Microsoft infrastructure

Install the SDK

Initialize the required objects

Obtaining capabilities feature

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Subscribe to capabilitiesChanged event

Capabilities Exposed

Set up your system

Create the Visual Studio project

Install the package and dependencies by using NuGet Package Manager

Obtaining capabilities feature

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Subscribe to capabilitiesChanged event

Capabilities Exposed

Set up your system

Create the Xcode project

Install the package and dependencies by using CocoaPods

Request access to the microphone

Set up the app framework

Initialize CallAgent

Obtaining capabilities feature

Get the capabilities of the local participant

Subscribe to capabilitiesChanged event

Capabilities Exposed

Supported Calltype

Next steps

Feedback

Additional resources

Subscribe to `capabilitiesChanged` event

Subscribe to `capabilitiesChanged` event

Subscribe to `capabilitiesChanged` event